Monday, August 21, 2006
Camaro’s Rebirth to Occur at Ontario Plant, G.M. Says
This is not just good news for GM and for Oshawa but for all the various suppliers, including stampers, of a major car plant and line in the area.
In many ways, the best news is near the end - since the Camaro was and likely will be a limited quantity car, Oshawa will be converted to flexible assembly, allowing in future other car lines to be made here, or undercapacity problems in other plants to be addressed here.
New York Times
The Chevrolet Camaro, a classic American muscle car, will be made in a Canadian factory when its production is revived in 2008, General Motors said on Monday.
The decision, one in a series of recent gains for the Canadian auto industry, means that General Motors of Canada will abandon plans to close a plant in Oshawa, Ontario, that is among the most efficient in North America. It follows an agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union in which about 2,500 jobs will be eliminated through early retirement at G.M.’s complex of factories in Oshawa, just east of Toronto.
At a news conference at the Oshawa No. 2 Plant, which currently builds sedans, G.M. Canada’s president, Arturo S. Elias, said the company would spend about 740 million Canadian dollars ($657.7 million) to convert the factory to a system that will allow it to make a wide variety of models on the same assembly line.
Because the Camaro is expected to sell only about 100,000 units a year, the addition of the flexible production line may ultimately prove more important for the factory’s future than the Camaro, union leaders and industry analysts said.
Oops. I missed this part, near the end ...
Chris Piper, a professor of operations management at the University of Western Ontario in London, said Oshawa’s consistently high productivity and quality ratings in independent surveys might have been decisive factors.
He also said that government-financed health care gave all Canadian auto plants a substantial cost advantage compared to operations in the United States.
In many ways, the best news is near the end - since the Camaro was and likely will be a limited quantity car, Oshawa will be converted to flexible assembly, allowing in future other car lines to be made here, or undercapacity problems in other plants to be addressed here.
New York Times
The Chevrolet Camaro, a classic American muscle car, will be made in a Canadian factory when its production is revived in 2008, General Motors said on Monday.
The decision, one in a series of recent gains for the Canadian auto industry, means that General Motors of Canada will abandon plans to close a plant in Oshawa, Ontario, that is among the most efficient in North America. It follows an agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union in which about 2,500 jobs will be eliminated through early retirement at G.M.’s complex of factories in Oshawa, just east of Toronto.
At a news conference at the Oshawa No. 2 Plant, which currently builds sedans, G.M. Canada’s president, Arturo S. Elias, said the company would spend about 740 million Canadian dollars ($657.7 million) to convert the factory to a system that will allow it to make a wide variety of models on the same assembly line.
Because the Camaro is expected to sell only about 100,000 units a year, the addition of the flexible production line may ultimately prove more important for the factory’s future than the Camaro, union leaders and industry analysts said.
Oops. I missed this part, near the end ...
Chris Piper, a professor of operations management at the University of Western Ontario in London, said Oshawa’s consistently high productivity and quality ratings in independent surveys might have been decisive factors.
He also said that government-financed health care gave all Canadian auto plants a substantial cost advantage compared to operations in the United States.
